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Well, this is a Blue Letter Day!!! I get to crack open this thread. Another sign of Spring. Dodger Baseball is in the air!!!! Now, we look for other signs of Dodger Baseball: What kind of physical and mental shape is Manny in? Are Furcal, Martin, and Bills poised to rebound from disappointing 2009 seasons? Is Loney ripped from his off season workouts? Is Kuroda healthy and can he stay that way for a full season, something he hasn’t done yet??? All will be revealed in time.GO BLUE!!!!

Good afternoon all…………..
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There are a few questions that remain, seesky…….I will add Monasterios….Is this Neds, wonder move….Can this guy make the roster at 25, If not how many pitchers will we carry opening day? Can Giles, play without pain, and if so…will Monkeywhiskers be the LH bat off the bench. Will we start the season with Carroll as Raffy’s back up, as to free up roster space, for a bit?? Can Stults finally realize the potential….can McDonald back up what he said about being a starter…will Heager be on the 25 man??? If so, as long relief, or is that Weavers job again, or McDonald. Will Johnson and Carroll hit in the clutch?? Will DeWitt??
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I am ready to find out….
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GO DODGERS!!!!

Hi everybody at ITD.
I look out my window and see February in Brooklyn, covered with a nice spread of snow and lots of pathways.
We’re expecting some more tonight, but lightly.
And it’s great to see spring starting, as the Dodgers are getting ready for another big baseball season.
I’m happy to see most of the guys back and I know they’re all anxious to get back and in the pennant fight and make this the year.
GO DODGERS!

Good evening ITD boys and girls!
Dodger gear is loaded onto the trucks, the trucks “truck-on” through to Camelback, getting there and unloading the trucks!!! Now THAT is a TRULY beautiful sight!!! Despite what the calendar says, SPRING IS HERE!!! :)

Happy Fat Tuesday ITD blogmates!
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Cleaning up my wallet I feel like I found some money. I have an OLD MLB.com card, balances on a rebate card, a Borders and Starbucks cards. An old movie ticket voucher, and a $5 Cold Stone certificate. They closed the closest Cold Stone to me so I am not sure they are still around.
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Joe Pierre,
Try to keep warm while we try to keep cool here. It will be in the 80’s again around here.
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5 days, 2 hours till Pitchers and Catchers report!
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Emmahttp://crzblue.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/02/black_history_month_women_base.html

Good Morning ITD readers and writers!!! We spent another great day in So-Cal yesterday watching 10 year olds play baseball, and it was wonderful to here those ballpark noises again, eventhough it was not the big boys yet. Then had a fabulous dinner as well :)) Can’t wait for Spring Training to begin so we can watch some Dodger baseball.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Emma’s Wallet Found Dead
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In another senseless act of personal accessory violence, Emma’s wallet was found dead today with what can in good decorum be described as having its insides spewn about. “We haven’t seen these things in years” one officer was heard saying as they scraped up the remains and tried to put them back in some semblence of order. “We won’t know what’s left until we give them a swipe” the deputy coroner assigned to the case said.
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Editor’s note: At the time this story was filed, the Coldstone« manager was unable to be reached for comment.

Editor’s note: Hot Stove U. is a six-week course devoted to higher learning, a series consisting of 30 need-to-know topics for 2010.

The setup

There are a lot of things to like about Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw. His fastball averages 94 miles per hour, yet he also can make hitters look foolish with a knockout breaking ball. He struck out 185 batters in just 171 innings a year ago, posting a K/9 that was the seventh-highest of any starter in baseball. He’s left-handed in a sport that covets southpaws. Oh, and he doesn’t turn 22 years old until halfway through spring training.

Even though Kershaw still struggles with his command and lacks experience, his ERA last season was even with Roy Halladay’s, and better than Johan Santana’s and Cliff Lee’s. When a pitcher is this good and this young, it is easy to dream about what the future may hold. If he’s already one of the best pitchers in the game (in this case, he is), what will happen when you give him some time to mature, learn how to pound the strike zone, mix his pitches and study hitters’ tendencies?

Unfortunately for Kershaw and Dodgers fans, history suggests that this may be as good as it will ever get for the young lefty. In fact, given the success he has had in the majors at such a young age, he may have already peaked.

This is interesting, if you’re a baseball fan. What of a guy like Tim Lincecum? He’s gold now, but might he decline as well? King Felix? Why does this happen and what other examples are there? For all this information, you must be an ESPN Insider.

LOL Enchanted! As long as I did not find a traffic ticket there! God knows they took plenty of my money last year. Some time ago I found a check in a drawer that I forgot to cash for $150 and it was about a year old. I felt too embarrased to ask the person for another one.
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Ron Cey is 62! I am so old….
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Happy belated Bday Russell!
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Anyone watch yesterday on MLB Network the special “Pride and Perseverence” It was on the Negro league. Wish we had more footage from the Negro League.
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Emmahttp://crzblue.mlblogs.com/.

Of course, Jhall, it’s not like the real thing. I’ve got some new Dodger things for the new season and am ready to go!
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Yay, a submission error! I live for these!!!!!
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Only ten minutes, so far…whoopee!

So Gagne would like to play for the Dodgers. Of course he would! I think he has expressed this before. Sorry, Greg, but as much as we enjoyed you when you were here, I am afraid your time has passed. I will never forget the excitement at Dodger Stadium when you entered a game. You were almost unbeatable. It would have been great if you could have maintained that level of performance and maybe without the injuries that might have happened. And while you certainly were not the only one, the steroid thing still hangs over your head. You have earned a place in Dodger lore and I thank you for the memories. I am sure there is a team out there who is willing to give you a chance given the lack of pitching talent in the major leagues. I just don’t think that will be with the Dodgers.

The Dodgers failure to pay for top end pitching will make us come close but no cigar every year. And in 4 or 5 years when all these young kids are playing on other teams for big contracts we will all shake our heads and say how did we not win a WS. This team, this year as of this second is far worse than the team that started the season last year.

I don’t think there will be any moves…..we are stuck with what we’ve got, and, except for Dre, Matt and James, who will be fine, I don’t see any improvement. So, as Ungar rightly put it, we didn’t win last year….so, how are we expected to do anything this year?

a full season of Manny would be nice. I think he was injured (hand) more so than lack of roids..We will see I guess. But he is also 38 and no non roided players hits at his old level at 38. We as much as I hated Pierre as a starter downgraded our 4th OF spot and 2b(defensively at a premium defense spot). Furcal will prob be worse as I see him being a shell of his former self. It’s ok on defense and for a normal SS, but you just know Torre will leave his .310 OBP at leadoff in there all year long because after all we gotta get him going! Also Kershaw and Chad may even get better..Chad in particular…he too I think was hurt when you look at his second half vs his other career numbers..but then Padilla sucks and his career numbers suggest he won’t put up the numbers he did in the second half for us..Kuroda is serviceable but a question mark..and then we still need another starter.

Bullpen will be fine. I think 3b will be fine too as I like Blake but can see a small drop off from him as well. Loney or Martin really need to step up. I think we will the west or Wild card.

Come on, guys!!! Everybody knows Ned needs lots of special assistance!!!….On the basis of our SP alone, we, definitely, are worse off than last year at this point. And last year’s staff had enough trouble getting through the 5th inning most of last year. Our SP is, at best, 3rd in the division behind the Gnats and D-backs. We’re going to need a big rebound from Bills, continued positive development from Kershaw, a solid performance from Padilla, and some unexpected help from the usual suspects in the 5-spot if we have any hope of even equaling last year’s performance. With the money situation as bad as it is, probably no July Miracle either unless we empty out the farm system. Cross yourselves, get out your prayer rugs, fiddle with your rosaries, and pray for our bullpen.

I posted Ned’s offseason “haul” a few threads ago, but it bears repeating:
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Reed Johnson
Justin Knoedler
Alfredo Amazaga
Jeff Weaver
Ramon Ortiz
Brad Ausmus
Ronnie Belliard
Vicente Padilla
Francisco Felix
Russ Ortiz
Juan Perez
Prentice Redman
Michael Restovich
Argenis Reyes
Doug Mientkiewicz
Scott Dohmann
John Lindsay
Nick Green
Justin Miller
Carlos Monasterios
Armando Zerpa
Josh Towers
Luis Ayala
Jamey Carroll
John Link
John Ely
Angel Berroa
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Where in the names above does it shout out WS champion? Where does it even shout out division champion? Those names don’t scream savvy, they scream dumpster diving. Yeah, there’s a couple that might do OK as role players, but unless Monasterios is really a viable #5, and Padilla and Belliard play like they did in September, its truely the most pathetic offseason in Dodger’s history.
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This is what happens when we have Ned’s revolving door plan of having 10-15 FAs go out every year – cattle call junk.

Unf***ing believable when you look at it like the list E has put above.
The best I can hope is that Reed Johnson having recovered from injury will be reasonably effective, because I think Manny will need a lot of replacing.
None of us know anything about Monasterios.
John Ely may actually have some potential being young and considering his minor league record.
If Vicente shows up doing what he did late in the season for us, he might be a decent #4 or #5, but his major league averages would make that less than what you can count on.

Fortunately we have the core of some strong youngsters, but even there Martin and Loney need to improve considerably. As afar as I’m concerned, this should be Martin’s last year to prove anything. There is no room to slide downward, and if he can’t pick it up we should change him out for somebody else. Otherwise, this is the worst example of championship team building that you’ll find anywhere, but then Ned’s in charge and even got an extension rather than the door, which he really deserved. I think the only way that Ned’s gone is if Jamie comes back, and that’s like getting between a rock and a hard place.

The question to me is, how much more do guys like Kemp, Dre, Brox and the rest of the core group have to improve to overcome the lack of supportive personnel moves by management? I personally don’t think there’s eough ceiling left to get that much better to where they can.

And the more I think about it, the stupider it was not to sign Garland. He’s better than your average #5 starter, and he’ll eat 50-75 innings more than your avarage #5, thus saving the bullpen. I doubted Kuroda was going to last a full year to begin with, and if he’s having to get acupuncture now to relieve pain, I doubt we get 100-120 innings out of him. Garland would’ve been nice to have in that event also. Nothing against Elbert or McDonald stepping up, but one also has to consider who our manager is, and he ain’t exactly high on young turks.

Gilligan, the Skipper, Mr. Howell and Ginger just have no clue and totally lack the tools to run this franchise, except into the ground.

I am already tired of hearing about the Yankees and Mark McQuire, and it’s only been one day.

enchanted – I have no doubts Matt and Andre (and others) will be there and ready for the challenge, but as a fan, you have to wonder how much pressure they are going to put on themselves to try and make up for lack of pitching, or others hitting. You are right, they can only do so much.

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